Friday, November 16, 2018

Canadian Woman Arrested For Not Holding Escalator Handrail

It was 2009. Bela Kosoian was in a subway station in Laval,
Canada, a suburb of Montreal, minding her own business… or so she thought.
Suddenly, she was ticketed and arrested, a police officer taking
her by force. Her crime? She had refused to hold an escalator
handrail.

The horror! Is there no end to human lawlessness
and depravity?

The officer pointed out the
pictogram clearly stating the instruction to “hold the handrail,” The Canadian Press reported. Incredibly,
the uppity Ms. Kosoian did not consider the image to be an absolute obligation,
according to the article. Therefore, the officers had no choice but to detain
her for half an hour and issue her two tickets totaling $420. Yet, only three
years later, Kosoian was somehow acquitted of the charges.

Ms. Kosoian had the temerity to
file a $45,000 lawsuit against the Montreal Transit Corporation, the City of
Laval and the officer who decided to arrest her, according to an account by The Montreal Gazette. A Quebec court
denied Kosoian’s suit in 2015, as did the Quebec Court of Appeals two years
later. The Supreme Court of Canada, however, recently agreed to hear the case.
Let’s hope it makes the anarchy-loving Kosoian an example to all those who blatantly
refuse to cling to germ-ridden escalator handrails while standing firmly on
solid escalator steps.

We often get so distracted by
inconsequential things like the society-altering invasion of illegal immigrants
and the hundreds of thousands of babies aborted every year, that we sometimes
don’t focus on truly serious issues such as people not obeying authorities’
signs instructing them to properly clutch an escalator’s handrail. I say throw
out her frivolous suit…and throw the book at her! If government authorities
post signs telling their citizens to bark like a dog, then those citizens
should be damn-well compelled to bark like a dog.

If the courts don’t act with vigor,
we will soon be overrun by folks who don’t follow the step-by-step instructions
on bathroom hand-dryers and who willfully remove the tags from their
mattresses. There could even be a worse scenario: we could find ourselves
living amongst those who do not faithfully observe the Government Food Pyramid
Guidelines.

Daily Trivia Quiz Answer

Today's Answer: Andrew Jackson. ("Poll" got so worked up before the service he apparently had to be removed from the premises, as he was cussing long and loud).

Q) What words appear on the front of the penny, nickel, dime and quarter, alongside the likeness of presidents?

A) "Liberty" and "In God We Trust"

An Ode To Life

Appreciate all you have, as it- and you- will soon be gone. Leave no heartfelt words unspoken, no sweet gesture incomplete, no act of love undone. Love your spouse with passion and abandon, your kids with patience and understanding but also a firm guidance. Love also the truth, no matter how hard. If pursued by enough people with enough courage, it really will set us free.

And don't forget, we didn't ask to be born. We didn't create ourselves. We are not gods. There is a higher power.

Fireworks of the Mind

Write It Up

Whence Shall Come Another?

True Then, True Now

"If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."- Winston Churchill

Time Well Wasted

The power lies within your hands To do with what you may But the hourglass is filled with sands Of endless yesterdays